COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – With baseballs flying all over and out of Bush Stadium, the Lipscomb baseball team came out on the wrong end of the slugfest 10-9 to homestanding Tennessee Tech in a nonconference tilt on Tuesday night in Cookeville.

“Tennessee Tech is a good team but we had control of the game in the seventh and eighth,” said Lipscomb head coach Jeff Forehand. “The last five runs we gave up were with two outs. You can’t do that against a team as good as they are.

“We did swing the bats well though. Hopefully we can build on that as we go into the weekend and keep that offensive power going.”

The Bisons (21-32) opened the scoring in the contest as senior trio Zach Lowery, Gray Hutchinson and Lee Wilson each launched a rocket over the fence to give Lipscomb an early 4-0 cushion in the second stanza. The Purple and Gold quickly made it a 5-0 lead the next inning as senior shortstop Aaron Sandoval singled up the middle, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a fly out and then scored on the second wild toss of the inning.

The Eagles (37-14) got on the scoreboard with a two-run double in the third to make it a 5-2 contest before drawing within a run in the fourth with a two-run blast that ended Jacob Knott’s evening on the hill.

The one-run lead would hold for Lipscomb until the sixth when Tennessee Tech launched the fifth homer of the night to tie the game 5-5.

The Bisons quickly answered in the top of the next frame as junior catcher Nick Rome got a rally started with a leadoff walk before Wilson walked and Sandoval drove both runners in with a double down the left field line. Sophomore designated hitter Tyson Ashcraft then swapped places with Sandoval to make it an 8-5 lead for LU.

Tech would cut the lead back to two runs in the seventh taking advantage of a balk to plate a two-out run. Lipscomb answered right back in the eighth as sophomore second baseman Noah Chandler opened the stanza with an infield single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Rome. A Wilson groundout moved Chandler 90 feet from home and that would loom large as the sophomore skated home on a wild pitch to give the Bisons a 9-6 lead.

Things looked good for the Bisons to head to the ninth with a three-run cushion after turning a double play to erase a leadoff walk but the Eagles had a different idea and pushed four runs across the plate to take the 10-9 win.

Lipscomb mounted a rally in the ninth getting the tying run into scoring position but Seth Lucio got out of the jam for his 11th save of the season for TTU.

LU sophomore Tyson Ashcraft took the loss on the hill allowing one earned run and one hit in one-third of an inning.

The Bisons return home on Thursday night at 6 p.m. opening a three-game Atlantic Sun Conference series against Kennesaw State. Lipscomb heads into the series needing one win to clinch a berth in the A-Sun Championship hosted next week in DeLand, Fla.